| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: with a ray of eager life during all that long day of excitement--
the day of joy and anxiety, of hope and terror, of vague grief
and indistinct delight. While the sun shone with that dazzling
light in which her love was born and grew till it possessed her
whole being, she was kept firm in her unwavering resolve by the
mysterious whisperings of desire which filled her heart with
impatient longing for the darkness that would mean the end of
danger and strife, the beginning of happiness, the fulfilling of
love, the completeness of life. It had set at last! The short
tropical twilight went out before she could draw the long breath
of relief; and now the sudden darkness seemed to be full of
Almayer's Folly |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: economy, one by one, as overtures for acquaintance and friendship.
The little one was shy, for all her busy interest in everything
going on, and it was not easy to tame her. For a while, she
would perch like a canary-bird on some box or package near Tom,
while busy in the little arts afore-named, and take from him,
with a kind of grave bashfulness, the little articles he offered.
But at last they got on quite confidential terms.
"What's little missy's name?" said Tom, at last, when he
thought matters were ripe to push such an inquiry.
"Evangeline St. Clare," said the little one, "though papa
and everybody else call me Eva. Now, what's your name?"
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: offended, or exclaims upon his author's folly, he had better
take to the daily papers; he will never be a reader.
And here, with the aptest illustrative force, after I have
laid down my part-truth, I must step in with its opposite.
For, after all, we are vessels of a very limited content.
Not all men can read all books; it is only in a chosen few
that any man will find his appointed food; and the fittest
lessons are the most palatable, and make themselves welcome
to the mind. A writer learns this early, and it is his chief
support; he goes on unafraid, laying down the law; and he is
sure at heart that most of what he says is demonstrably
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